A boom in corporate profits, a bust in jobs, wages

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Caterpillar on Friday are just the latest proof that booming profits have allowed Corporate America to leave the Great Recession far behind.

But millions of ordinary Americans are stranded in a labor market that looks like it's still in recession. Unemployment is stuck at 9.2 percent, two years into what economists call a recovery. Job growth has been slow and wages stagnant.

"I've never seen labor markets this weak in 35 years of research," says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Wages and salaries accounted for just 1 percent of economic growth in the first 18 months after economists declared that the recession had ended in June 2009, according to Sum and other Northeastern researchers.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110722/D9OKVN180.html

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In this July 22, 2011 photo, visitors walk through the tables of perspective employers at the Pittsburgh Career Fair in Pittsburgh. Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonalds and Caterpillar Friday, July 22, are just the latest example of a boom in corporate profits. But job growth is stagnant and unemployment is rising.(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Smirk. You proles can just eat shit and die." - RepubliCorp, Inc. (R)

[tcaudilllg]

7. I would love to see a pic of Uncle money bags

with a bullet in his head. Start putting out pics like that, and you'll start seeing a change of attitude from the rich.

[SpiralHawk]

8. That sort of degenerate terroristic imagery has no place in my life or on DU

You may find that kind of ugly hateful crap on right-wing sites, but not here and not from me.

Get thee behind me, tcauadillg

[tcaudilllg]

10. Fear is more useful than you think.

Clinton gave the right wing orgs hell during his administration, by letting his people vent on them via modest abuses of power, like for example, repeat audits. This practice has been well documented. Obama is much more business friendly than Clinton, and it's being exploited, from what I can tell, by the right wing. Now I'm under no illusions Boehner wants to cut SS or even the health bill... he put that in there as a poison pill to kill the talks. Boehner and McConnell are trying like hell to kill the Tea Party, that's obvious. But man, something has got to happen from somewhere to jolt the businesses back into action here. It's not like the country can take this. It cannot. You can diss me for shooting Uncle Moneybags all you like... but the sad reality is where there is economic distress, there will be escalating violence.

Fear regulates. It's one means of regulation and without it, you lose something. Those who think fear has no place in this world are naive... because many people think of nothing but how to be feared and powerful. Especially on the right.

[JDPriestly]

15. Agreed, SpiralHawk

Thanks for speaking up.

[Occulus]

18. They will always win because of people like you.

When you eliminate violence as a final option for response, you write what is an essentially blank check to those who only violence will stop.

[Bozita]

13. Perfect!

[Marblehead]

3. We need a

legitimate economy that works for us, not a feudal system that is now emerging.

[No Elephants]

4. If a company's profits are up, but its hiring is down or plateau-ed, what does that say?

Fewer people working harder and/or for less money.

And it's not that easy to work harder when a couple has three to five jobs between them. Then again, dying young would do wonders for Social Security.

Mission Accomplished.

If you read nothing else as long as you live, read both parts of the Citicorp. plutonomy memo.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/04/789523/-Citigroups-Shocking-Plutonomy-Reportsh-t-Michael-Moore

[CatholicEdHead]

29. Yep, around my workplace 50-60+hrs/week every week is common

on a near skeletal staff.

[Solly Mack]

30. Yep

[cutlassmama]

5. the plebs will have to settle with 2-3 jobs for the one they used to work.

[Maccagirl]

14. Where are the 2nd and 3rd jobs-much lest the first?

n/t

[ananda]

6. Mission Accomplished.

We the United States of Corporatism have created a debtor serf class
worthy of our talent for moving money up and out of the hands of
poor and working people. Praise the god of elitist greed!

[Zorra]

9. Uh-huh. Time to tax them into submission.

Tax cuts for the wealthy don't stimulate the economy they just make wealthy people richer.

[hack89]

22. How will that create jobs? nt

[maddogesq]

28. It's simple: TAX INCENTIVES

Raise taxes on corpoartions, while at the same time offering incentives to do these things:

1. Hire, hire, hire.

2. Bring jobs back from overseas. This one requires a big fricking stick for those that don't.

3. More incentives for renewables and sustainable buisness practices.

4. Rethink Shafta and other bullshit trade agreements. Clinton was a good prez, but he screwed the pooch on these treaties.

5. Strongly penalize outfits that hire illegal aliens to pluck chickens, etc. At the same time, offer a fair and efficient transition for those aliens already here.

In the long run, everybody wins. Unfortunately, none of this will ever happen in the new third world order we live in.

Trickle-down is trckle-on. Oh wait, lately it's more like shit-on economics.

[Blue_Tires]

11. I hope these stories are on permanent display

whenever business leaders extort their "job-creating tax breaks" from local, state and federal government

no more than racketeering, plain and simple...

[bvar22]

12. DLC Mission Accomplished!!!

Now,
if we can just gut Social Security & Medicare,
we will have a DLC Clean Sweep!

[yurbud]

16. further proof its time to stop applying conservative snake oil to the economy.

[sarcasmo]

17. Corporate Fascism is thriving in this country.

[grahamhgreen]

19. So you raise their taxes! Since wages a company pays out can be written off, they are incentivized

To pay more.

[primavera]

23. But, but... that would be sane!

We don't DO sane in this country.

[joeglow3]

27. Really?

A company can choose between $100 of profit and $40 of taxes ($60 in their pocket) or $100 in salary expense and $0 in taxes ($0 in their pocket) and you think they would choose the latter?

[indurancevile]

20. kick

[CBHagman]

21. Do read the rest of the article. Very disturbing.

These sections in particular struck me:

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110722/D9OKVN180.html

Back in the U.S., companies are squeezing more productivity out of staffs thinned by layoffs during the Great Recession. They don't need to hire. And they don't need to be generous with pay raises; they know their employees have nowhere else to go.

Companies remain reluctant to spend the $1.9 trillion in cash they've accumulated, especially in the United States, which would create jobs. They're unconvinced that consumers are ready to spend again with the vigor they showed before the recession, and they are worried about uncertainty in U.S. government policies.

Add to that the decreased buying power of the average worker (while the companies are waiting for that very worker to increase spending again!) and you have a self-sustaining problem.

[hack89]

24. Caterpillar hired 6,000 in the past year. GE is hiring too.

http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/article_a78b10ad-7ede-5e46-9dc3-da098b6d19b9.html

http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/-69m-caterpillar-center-to-hire-hundreds-1177201.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11536435

http://www.manufacturing.net/News/2010/12/Labor-Relations-CAT-Unit-Hiring-In-Indiana/?menuid=276

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/05/13/now-hiring-ge-creating-1-000-manufacturing-jobs/

[PurityOfEssence]

25. And yet this is not enough for them, and never will be.

They must have lower corporate tax rates and less regulation.

[JCMach1]

26. The jobs will never come back... the world is flat and unless we take control of our destiny from

the corporations, we are indeed screwn...